Alesong’s Kind of Blue offers up a delicious and potent experience to kick off this Rare Beer Club special offer. This was aged in French Oak barrels (previously filled with Oregon Pinot Noir) and includes a full melange of microbes: more tame Saccharomyces yeast, plus a blend of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. It also incorporates whole blueberries that were grown in the Willamette Valley, to the tune of two pounds per gallon. There’s a whole lot going on in this one—and we’re just getting warmed up. Only 250 cases were made, which is far more than any of the other Alesong beers in this offer. We’re big fans of these folks, and many of you may recall their Blackberry Gose (a recent feature in The Rare Beer Club). We wanted more!

This pours a bold, ruby-ish color that also hints at its blueberry origins, with a modest off-white foam. The aromatics are immediate and mouthwatering: tart blueberries and cherries along with an engaging savory counterpoint of fruit leather, subtle spice and barnyard funk. The acidity lands at the forefront of things on first pour, but we loved how this one opened up with a bit of time in the glass, expanding to darker berries, lemon zest, toasted almonds...

There’s a lot of fruit upfront in the flavor, carrying lemony and funky acidity along with it, as those aforementioned leather and spice elements take a secondary role. Modest carbonation allows you to really dig into this one: the jolt of tartness carries things, with smoothing notes from the oak barrels (soft vanilla and almond, with just a hint of tannins) helping everything stay focused despite how much is going on here. Earthy undertones from the Brett make it so much more nuanced than you’re going to get from a kettle sour—it’s beers like this one that make us appreciate just how much depth you can get from mixed fermentation. Yum.

Pairing & Aging Notes:

This is bottle-conditioned with plenty of acidity, so some months in the cellar should be just fine, but do note that the bright fruit character will tend to dissipate over time. For pairings, that plush blueberry character had us thinking goat cheese: creamy chevre or, given options, Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog (one of our favorites for lambic-ish sour beers in general).

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